Encouraging upturn in local, foreign investment proposals

FE Team | Published: January 07, 2012 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Badrul Ahsan
Investment proposals from both local and foreign sources have shown an encouraging upturn in the just concluded calendar year despite gas and electricity supply shortage and the shocks from global economic crisis, they said.
In comparison with the previous years, the growth rates of the proposed local and foreign direct investments (FDI) in the country increased by around 20 and 25 per cent respectively in the calendar year 2011.
Chairman of the Board of Investment (BoI) SA Samad stressed the need for developing infrastructure facilities, communications system and also ensuring uninterrupted power supply for further boosting both local and foreign direct investments in Bangladesh.
"Development of infrastructural facilities, communication system and also ensuring uninterrupted power supply can make an investment boom in the country within a short period," Mr Samad said.
The BoI chairman added, "The position of Bangladesh in FDI listings has gone up to 114 from its earlier position of 120."
Director of Korea-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KBCCI), Kutubuddin Ahmed, said the increasing attention from both the local and the foreign investors proves that Bangladesh is on the right track to woo investment from global firms.
Mr Ahmed urged the government to take immediate steps to ensure an investment friendly atmosphere in the country for a massive growth in investment.
Replying to a question of the FE whether the current political unrest would hamper the investment growth, he said, "Foreign investment in Sri Lanka was not hampered even after 30 years of civil war and investment in Pakistan also increased despite having political unrest there."
Another high official of BoI preferring anonymity said that the BoI has taken a set of proactive decisions like holding road show and stage show abroad to attract more FDI in the country.
"To attract more foreign investment, BOI will stage some overseas road-shows in India, the Middle East and Europe by this year," he said.
If the road-shows become successful, more such showpieces will be arranged in phases, the official said.
"The road-shows are expected to attract more foreign investments in several sectors, mainly in energy and in high-tech industries," the BoI official added.
A previous road-show in London attracted British investment in power plants for the country, he said without giving details.
According to the statistics of Board of Investment (BoI), some 1,755 local entrepreneurs have listed themselves with the BoI with an investment proposal of about Tk5.86 billion in January-December 2011 period, which was Tk5.05 billion a year before (2010).
On the other hand, some 219 foreign companies have also listed themselves with BoI with investment proposals of around US$ 6.65 billion in 2011 against US$ 5.3 billion in 2010.
"Of the foreign proposals, a good number of hi-tech investors like Samsung Corporation, Daewoo Group and others from abroad have shown interest to invest in Bangladesh," BoI data revealed.
The BoI statistics have also shown that many international conglomerates from the USA, Korea, India, Spain, Thailand, China, Germany, Japan, Malta, Mauritius, Singapore, Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, Vietnam and Hong Kong have either listed themselves with the government or are communicating with the government entity to invest in Bangladesh either individually or in joint venture.